It is widely known that Guatemalan nationals are constantly invading Belize’s forests, logging and harvesting xate illegally. They have become increasingly brazen, moving further into Belizean territory and have attacked B.D.F. soldiers on numerous occasions. But the illegal activity in the forest goes beyond trees and xate, the Guatemalans are also hunting Belize’s national animal, the tapir. A group of xateros was recently confronted in the Chiquibul and it was discovered that they had killed an adult tapir and were taking her calf. The Guatemalans escaped, but left the calf behind in a bag. The Belize Zoo and Friends for Conservation launched a rescue mission, which was caught on camera by National Geographic filmmaker, Richard Foster. News Five caught up with Foster at the zoo today and he told us about the efforts to save the baby tapir.

Richard Foster, Natural History Filmmaker “We went to the head station of the Friends for Conservation up there, Raphael Manzanero’s operation and they had the baby tapir there right at the station. Poor little thing, I mean the thing was only a few weeks old. The officer who actually found the tapir--found a bag with the tapir in it--was right there so I managed to talk to him and he told us a story of how he came upon a bunch of xateros up there, illegally up there, and they ran off and there was a little sack left there. They opened up the sack and there was a little face looking up and obviously the mother had been shot or butchered anyway and they were taking the baby tapir back to Guatemala for sale I’m sure. They gave it a meal and they put it in the truck and Tony Garel kept it between his legs in the truck on the way back. We got it back after dark and put it in a little kennel and gave it another dose of milk and it seemed to be fine.”More....

Using DNA as a way to identify individuals is not restricted to the investigation of crimes against humans. Wildlife law enforcement officers have been relying on DNA evidence since the late 1980s to help prosecute persons who take wildlife illegally. Biologists discovered that DNA provides valuable information about the population dynamics of the wildlife they monitor and manage. "We use DNA as a forensic, investigative tool," said Capt. Myra Minton, acting assistant director of law enforcement for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "I can recall several cases where we used the DNA in blood evidence to match a gut pile to a deer carcass, or a deer head in a freezer with a deer carcass that had its head removed." Minton said the department sends evidence samples to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, OR, the only lab in the world dedicated to crimes against wildlife. The lab supports wildlife law enforcement efforts in all 50 states and the 150 foreign countries that have signed the CITES Treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). DNA profiling, sometimes referred to as genetic fingerprinting, was developed by British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys in 1984. Much of what we know about black bears in Kentucky is the result of DNA analysis. "We use hair snares as a non-invasive sampling method," said Steven Dobey, the departments bear program coordinator. "The DNA extracted from hair follicles allows us to individually identify each bear, determine the sex ratio of the population and ultimately estimate the size of the population." More....

A thick autumn snowfall still carpeted the ground when Colorado district wildlife manager Tom Knowles got the tip that put him on the trail of the "Missouri boys." The informant, a hunter named Michael Xavier, said that three men who had licenses only for cow elk had killed at least one bull elk in Rio Blanco County, in the north-central part of the state. Knowles visited the hunting camp where Xavier saw the men. There, a camper named Doug Harlow told Knowles that he also saw the trio -- whom he called the "Missouri boys" -- bringing meat back from the woods two days earlier. They told him they'd shot a cow, but Harlow wondered; they "were covered in blood from head to toe and seemed to have a lot of meat for just one cow," he said. Knowles followed the men's tracks for perhaps two miles to an elk carcass. The meat had been taken and the skull plate sliced off, suggesting that it was a bull whose antlers were removed. Knowles' job requires him to be part outdoorsman, part detective and part coroner. He took photos and used a metal detector near a bullet wound in the animal's neck. Cutting into the elk, he followed the bullet's path and extracted two metal fragments. He also sliced out a DNA sample. The animal, he suspected, had been poached. Poaching involves everything from killing or possessing endangered wildlife and fish to killing more than the legal limit of a species, hunting out of season, and killing without the correct license. It's a serious problem for Western states. Ironically, the fact that poachers seldom bother to buy hunting licenses means that states are also deprived of the revenue they rely on to protect wildlife. More....

Source: Savetheelephants.orgAn unidentified helicopter has been flying over the airspace of the National Park of Quirimbas in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, allegedly owned by poachers who are investing in new techniques of slaughtering wild animals, local authorities have warned. The case was reported by the park administrator, Jose Dias, who said this level of investment goes beyond the supervising capacity of local authorities, which are already fragile. The newly found trend puts the preservation of forest species in danger, the state news agency AIM said on Wednesday. Dias was quoted as saying poachers use the helicopter to transport ivory after killing elephants, making interventions much more difficult for the forest authorities. In most of the cases, poachers are better equipped than the park supervisors themselves and it is much worse if compared with community supervisors who are fundamental to control the situation in the park, according to the official. By new techniques, poachers have killed 52 elephants this year in the Niassa reserve in northern Mozambique, and a total of 124 elephants in two years.

God help us if state budget cuts start whittling away at the already low number of Fish and Wildlife police patrolling Washington. The four or five agents who might be scattered around 100,000 square miles of far-Eastern Washington on a given day could write tickets day and night. The woods and streams are crawling with people who violate the rules set to assure a steady supply of wildlife.One state wildlife officer patrolling the Snake and Grande Ronde rivers last week wrote 14 citations in four hours. I’m not sure you could write up more violators doing breathalyzer tests at the Apple Cup. Catching wildlife poachers is more difficult, since they’re not concentrated along streams. Cases can take days or weeks to make. Yet just last week, Fish and Wildlife police made 48 arrests and issued 24 warnings in the Spokane Region, according to Capt. Mike Whorton.Failure to tag a deer or using someone else’s tag on a deer were common infractions, but officers had to deal with much more. Here’s a mere sampling from last week.How to raise a kid: A deer decoy sting suckered what Whorton described as “one of the more notorious road-hunting families in the Spokane area.” Officers staked out the decoy and wrote tickets after the father encouraged his unlicensed 15-year-old son to shoot the decoy. More....

Poachingdeer, either in season or out of season is something that has been going on for a very long time. Most of the poaching Nationwide is not done for food, but for the thrill of killing; in other words, killing and not getting caught. The worst kind of poacher is the one that leaves the carcass of the animal to spoil.

And today, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR), reports that a minimum of 13 deer were shot, killed and left lying on the ground in the Fairmont area during the month prior to the start of the firearms deer seasons.They are seeking your help in solving this case!There are many pseudonyms that could be applied to the person who poaches, and even more that could be applied to those who poach a deer/bear/elk or other wildlife and then leaves it for scavengers. The Law Enforcement Section of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is requesting help from the public to solve this case. The deer were found in the Apple Valley / Boothsville area, according to Capt. William Persinger of the WVDNR District 1 Office in Farmington.Six deer were shot and killed within 25 yards of a residence in Apple Valley. Another seven deer were shot and killed on two additional properties near the same area, near several residences that were within 100 yards of each other. More....

Three Australians on a North Ameican hunting trip have been sent packing, but not before Idaho officials fined them thousands of dollars for elk poaching and told the bad apples they could never return to hunt in Idaho and virtually anywhere else in the United States. All three paid thousands of dollars in fines and restitution in an Elmore County courtwhile forfeiting two hunting rifles before the long plane trip back home. Read on for the details from Idaho Fish and Game. Anton Kapeller, 58, Darren Tubb, 43, and Samuel Henley, 18, all from Tasmania, Australia, were contacted and later arrested by Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers on Thursday, November 3, near Atlanta. Eleven charges were filed against the trio; most serious were the charges of killing a six-point bull elk four days before the November 1 opener and leaving the animal to waste. In an expedited process, the three bonded out of jail six days later and appeared before Magistrate Judge David Epis for sentencing on Tuesday, November 15. Kapeller faced six misdemeanor counts, including possession of unlawfully taken elk, and aid/counsel of the killing of elk during closed season. He was sentenced to $5,792 in fines and restitution and a lifetime revocation of hunting and fishing privileges. He also forfeited a hunting rifle used during the trip.Tubb was charged with three misdemeanors, including killing a bull elk in a closed season, wasteful destruction of elk and transfer of a big game tag. He was sentenced to $5,268 in fines and restitution, loss of a hunting rifle and a lifetime revocation of hunting and fishing privileges. More....

Think ‘Chernobyl’ and pictures of the nuclear meltdown from hell spring to mind. In the quarter century since, surprising things have been happening in the exclusion zone around the Ukraine’s notorious nuclear power plant. Plants and animals have returned and in some areas are thriving. But the region screams many vexing questions, none the least of which is the reason for the gradual disappearance of Przewalski’s horses that were released into the area in the late 1990s. And you have to question why an endangered species was released into such a hazardous area in the first place. On April 26, 1986, a systems test at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Prypiat and close to the border with Belarus went catastrophically wrong. Following a sudden power surge, an emergency shutdown failed and a second more extreme power surge led to a reactor vessel rupture, then a series of explosions. The 1000 tonne sealing cap blew off the reactor and its graphite moderator was exposed to the air, causing it to ignite. The fire raged for nine days spewing huge quantities of radiation into the atmosphere that spread 150,000 square kilometres over the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The wind carried radiation fallout as far away as Scandinavia. Later, a concrete sarcophagus was built over the damaged reactor to cover the contaminated remains. But construction was poor; the roof leaks and rain drains through the floor to spread contaminated water into the surrounding soil.The exclusion zone was established very soon after the disaster and initially extended 30 kilometres around the plant. But its border was adjusted to accommodate areas of high concentration. The zone’s area is unevenly polluted and those regions most intensively affected were initially created from the fallout from wind and rain, and then because they were the sites for numerous burials of materials and equipment used in the cleanup. More....

Poachers killed a big bull elk and also illegally transferred wolf tags-Here is the outcome of the matter of the elk poaching Tasmanians in the Idaho wilderness. Many of the details came from an article by Australian reporter Paul Toohey for The Mercury.The 3 men, Darren Tubb, 43, Anton Kapeller, 58, and Samuel Henley, 18 plead guilty to killing a bull elk (a big one) out of season. Henley also shot two wolves that had been attracted to the discarded elk carcass. They took the antlers, but left the big carcass of the elk to rot in a nearby meadow. Two of the men had wolf tags, but Henley shot both wolves. He used his uncle’s tag (Tubb) illegally to tag the second wolf.Although this was way back in roadless Sawtooth Mountains, unfortunately for the poachers, the whole thing was staked out by Idaho Fish and Game. That was because Kapeller had been coming to Idaho to hunt for many years, and for a long time IDFG thought he had been poaching elk (hunting them during closed season before the legal hunt). So officers were ready to follow him. Tubb and Henley were on their first trip to Idaho. Kapeller actually killed the elk after Tubb took three shots that missed. There was also a very incriminating photo taken of Heney posing by the dead elk (and date stamped by the camera). Here is that photo and the story.The story about the two wolves menacing Henley was made up according to IDFG who watched Henley shoot them from a distance as they scavenged the abandoned carcass. It has long been my opinion that the “menacing wolf” stories, almost always told by people who don’t like wolves, are made up. Too bad they can’t be fined in general for lying. More....

Six men have been indicted in what's being called the Hill Country's largest rustling case in memory: the alleged pilfering of roughly 6,000 lambs worth upwards of $800,000.

The animals were reported stolen by the Immel Feed Yard, a sprawling network of pens in the rolling rural countryside north of town, where one suspect had worked for years. “It's devastating,” owner Alton Immel said of the thefts, the worst since the business opened in 1969, made worse by the possible betrayal of a worker. The thefts began on a small scale, with a few animals secreted away in the backs of pickups, said Max Hartmann, special agent for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “When they realized how easy it was, they enlarged the operation and began using trailers,” he said Friday. The four-legged inventory at the 30-acre lot often tops 10,000 head, making it hard to tell by sight if hundreds vanished overnight. “You wouldn't notice it at all,” said Immel, who's bolstered yard security. The organized crime indictments issued Monday accuse the defendants, including four brothers, of conspiring in 2010-11 to steal the lambs and sell them in Gillespie, Burnet and Mills counties. More....

At last count, there were 32 Guatemalans living illegally inside Belizean protected areas—particularly the Caracol Archaeological Reserve and the Chiquibul National Park—according to information released to the media today, Wednesday, by Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), a Cayo-based NGO which co-manages the Chiquibul National Park.

Rigoberto Gutierrez, who FCD’s Park Ranger Derric Chan said has expanded his ranch inside Belize almost 25 acres, may be linked with further illegal encroachments and incursions into Belizean territory, FCD’s executive director Rafael Manzanero indicated.

Those incursions include the increased clearing of Belizean forests, which have escalated from a reported 113 hectares in 1987, 692 hectares in 1994, 4,680 hectares in 2009, and almost 5,000 hectares in April 2011, are a major threat to Belize’s territorial integrity, the NGO points out.

“We need more boots on the ground,” said Manzanero, calling for an increase in observation posts inside the protected areas in question.

It’s not just the illegal clearings for farming and pasturing nearly three miles into Belize that pose a serious problem for Belize; there is a multi-million-dollar interest involved, spanning the illegal logging trade, clandestine xate harvesting, and stealthy scarlet macaw poaching expeditions deep into Belize’s Maya Mountain Massif, and particularly across the majestic and expansive Chiquibul, which makes up a sizeable chunk of the Cayo District.

FCD notes that 13 detainees were held in 2010, but 11 were caught in 2010 up to 22 kilometers, or nearly 13 miles into Belize.

In addition, 46 horses brought by encroaching Guatemalans were confiscated over the past two years, 32 of them in 2011. More....

A 64-year-old Idaho North Idaho man has agreed to pay more than $13,000 in restitution and fines and will lose his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for life for illegally obtaining a Montana hunting license and killing a trophy bighorn sheep in north-central Montana, the Associated Press reports.

Roger J. Woodworth of Hayden, Idaho, was sentenced Nov. 6 by District Judge Nels Swandal as part of a plea agreement with Fergus County prosecutors, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials. FWP officials say Woodworth illegally bought a Montana resident hunting license in 2009, then applied and was drawn in the lottery for a bighorn license in the Missouri River Breaks north of Lewistown, where he shot the ram. A tip led to the charges against Woodworth, who was required to give up the bighorn sheep trophy mount.

Poaching and illegal trade in sturgeon caviar persist in Romania and Bulgaria, environmental group WWF warned on Monday, posing a serious risk to the highly threatened species of fish.

A total of 15.7 pounds of illegal caviar, retailing for upwards of $8,200 per kilo, originating in the two countries were reported by European Union member states between 2000 and 2009, the report said.

"The real volume of illegal trade is likely to be considerably higher," the report's author Katalin Kecse-Nagy said in the statement.

The Black Sea is one of the most important sturgeon fisheries in the world, second only to the Caspian Sea. The Danube, as one of the major feeder rivers and estuaries of the Black Sea, is crucial for the fish.

According to the World Sturgeon Conservation Society, the Danube is the only large river system in Europe where protection of existing but dwindling sturgeon stocks is still possible.

Fishing and export of sturgeon and sturgeon products of wild origin was banned in Romania in 2006 for 10 years, while Bulgaria is currently under a one-year ban, the WWF said.

The WWF report recommended that Sofia and Bucharest strengthen their enforcement agencies, while also insisting for closer monitoring by the EU and more awareness among consumers and traders. More....

Source: Mnn.comBy Jan Marchal Their galloping stocky, sandy-brown silhouettes inspired dreamy prehistoric cave paintings. Now, an ancient species known as Przewalski's wild horse has narrowly avoided extinction thanks to zoos worldwide and is cautiously being reintroduced to its homeland on the vast Mongolian steppe. In charge of keeping the world genealogy book for this rare species, the Prague zoo has played a key role in this historic homecoming. "Three mares and one stallion have been acclimatising in the Mongolian province of Khomiin Tal since June," said zoo director Miroslav Bobek. "We expect to move another four horses in 2012," he added. For decades, Prague zoo has been breeding these sturdy animals which have survived in captivity since the last wild horse was seen in Mongolia in 1969. More than one-third of some 1,800 Przewalski horses living all over the world today, including 1,600 in captivity, are related to horses bred at the Prague zoo. Characterized by thick necks, large heads and stocky barrels, Przewalski's horses weigh between 551-771 pounds, are about 3.9-4.3 feet tall at withers and two meters long. To kick up the dust on the land of their ancestors, the horses spend about 30 hours inside special containers aboard a Czech army plane and then a lorry. The newcomers to Mongolia — a young stallion named Matyas and particularly the mares named Kordula, Lima and Cassovia — have already attracted the interest of the denizens of the Khomiin Tal provincial wildlife reserve in western Mongolia. An earlier group of Przewalski horses were brought to the province six years ago from another location in Mongolia by Takh, a French association bearing the Mongolian name of Przewalski's horses. "One dominant stallion, Carex, jumped over the fence into the acclimatisation enclosure and joined the (new) group," Bobek said. "He started to harass Matyas, but he soon had to face the competition of another 'jumper', a stallion named Bo, who turned out to be an even stronger natural leader," he added. More....

In 2006, researchers undertook an extensive search for Western black rhinos in Cameroon, the place where the species was last sighted. No rhinos were found. Researchers failed to turn up any evidence of their dung, tracks, or signs of feeding. Had the rare subspecies of black rhinoceros gone the way of the dodo? Sadly, yes. Yesterday, citing the rampant practice of wildlife poaching and a failure to act by Cameroon authorities, the world's largest conservation network declared Africa's Western black rhino officially extinct. But wait a minute. You just read about black rhinos the other day. There were a whole bunch of them being sedated, blindfolded, and airlifted to safety. And they were upside-down. Yes, of course you saw it — the sight of a 3,000-pound mammal soaring upside-down over a vast African landscape is not a sight you soon forget. So how can they be extinct? Well, they can't. But another subspecies of black rhino can. The now-famous flying rhinos belong to one of the four recognized subspecies of black rhinoceros, namely Diceros bicornis minor. And believe it or not, with an estimated population of just 4,240 members, D. b. minor is still the most numerous of the four subspecies. Of course, the least numerous is now the Western black rhino, known formally as D. b. longipes. In the annual update to its Red List of threatened species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said the latest assessment of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct. More....

MCSS carry out Turtle Monitoring patrols on selected beaches in the South of Mahé which involves walking the full length of the beach at the vegetation line to check for any turtles or turtle tracks. We carry out turtle monitoring patrols throughout the year and increase the patrols to three times a week during the peak nesting season (October to January) for Critically Endangered hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata).The purpose of the turtle monitoring patrol is to collect data in order for us to increase our knowledge of turtle populations to help protect them further. An additional benefit of our turtle monitoring patrols is that our presence on beaches can deter poachers.Yesterday, during the usual turtle monitoring patrol, Uzice and Cathrina came across something wrong on Anse Bazarca. There was a hawksbill turtle track going up the beach but not going down. Instead there was a pseudo turtle track, suggesting the cunning poachers knew that the beach would be later patrolled. Our experienced staff spotted the imitation track straight away, most likely made by the attempting poachers.

This led Uzice to check the vegetation thoroughly and fortunately, found the hawksbill turtle lying on its back. A turtle on its back is unable to right itself and is the traditional way of immobilising a turtle to collect later (to turn turtle?), presumably in this case, when less people are around. Thankfully, we were there to rescue the turtle and Uzice carefully returned the turtle the right way up so that she could make her way back to the sea. Cathrina and Uzice made sure they watched the turtle safely returned to the sea. More....

Source: Wildlifeextra.comWeighing more than a tonne and hidden inside bundles of cloth, more than a tonne of ivory has been confiscated from a river boat near the city of Mong Cai, close to the country's border with China.Vietnamese officials say that scientific analysis confirms that all 211 items seized during the raid last month were, as suspected, African elephant ivory.Three people, all Chinese citizens, have been arrested and taken into custody for further questioning.'This is an important seizure'‘TRAFFIC commends Vietnamese Customs on this important seizure, which is indicative of the increasing illegal trade of ivory within Southeast Asia. It is imperative that the origin and destination of the shipment be identified by authorities,' said Chris Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.‘It is vitally important that officials investigate the movement of ivory from Vietnam into China and prosecute those involved. This will require a co-ordinated effort among enforcement agencies in Asia and Africa. Only through joint co-operation between producer and consumer countries can the trafficking of ivory be effectively tackled.'Officials believe that the shipment was intended for buyers in China and it is thought to have originated from Africa. Globally, illicit trade in ivory has been escalating since 2004 and demand from Asia is considered to be the leading driver of elephant poaching in Africa.'Grim figures illustrate how active this illegal trade route is'‘Since 2009, Vietnamese authorities have seized 9.3 tonnes of elephant ivory and earlier this year Chinese authorities apprehended another 2.2 tonnes of ivory moving across the Vietnamese border into a remote area of China,' says TRAFFIC's ivory trade expert, Tom Milliken.‘These grim figures are testimony to just how active this illegal trade route is.'This incident comes shortly after Vietnamese authorities seized more than 200 kg of ivory being smuggled in the north central province of Nghe An in September. Three men connected to the shipment were arrested by local authorities and are currently being held awaiting prosecution. Finally, as a shocking ‘hot-off-the-press' footnote, according to a Vietnamese media report, customs in the port of Hai Phong seized 300 kg of ivory on at the beginning of the month. It is said to be imported by a company based in Mong Cai.

The district court of Larnaca, on the southern coast of Cyprus, has given a 10,000 euro fine to an 83-year-old woman, after more than 2,500 migratory birds were found in her house, meant for restaurants on the islands. In fact hunting these birds is forbidden. The news is reported today by the newspaper Cyprus Mail, which points out that it is the first strict penalty issued in Cyprus for poaching and the first for possession of this type of bird, considered a delicacy on the Mediterranean island where they are called ''ambelopoulia'' (vineyard birds).

The enormous amount of birds - which have an estimated value of 8,000 euros on the illegal market - was found in October in the house of the old woman in a village in the inlands. The law in Cyprus provides for a maximum sentence for poaching of three years in jail and or a fine of 17,000 euros.

Conservation group BirdLife Cyprus denounced recently that at least 400 thousand small migratory songbirds - mostly blackcaps, chaffinches and robins but also hoopoes and streaked fantail warblers - were killed illegally in Cyprus in the first two weeks of September. The birds were served as delicacy in the island's restaurants for prices up to 80 euros for a portion of 12. Their capture is forbidden by law, but poachers catch them anyway, using large mist nets that are stretched between trees or sticks, or sticks covered with a sticky substance and hidden in the shrubs. These cruel methods cause the birds to die slowly of hunger and thirst. The phenomenon has created an illegal market worth millions of euros per year, and could cause an ecological disaster that is so far ignored by Europe and the local government.

“I patrolled nearly 2000 miles of back roads during October and encountered fewer elk hunters and far fewer elk camps than in the recent past,” said Jerry Hugo, Idaho Fish and Game Department conservation officer in North Idaho. “Panhandle resident elk camps far outpaced non-resident elk hunting camps this fall.” But there's been no shortage of poachers, officers say. Tips are being sought to help nab whomever killed two moose shot and wasted near Cataldo around Oct. 29. District Officers operated several bull and cow elk decoys during closed seasons in an effort to enforce our current Panhandle big-game regulations. “I saw and heard from hunters that they were seeing LOTS and LOTS of moose,” Hugo said. “Moose are definitely enjoying the abundance of the new found forage in Unit 6 and are not as vulnerable to severe winter weather conditions as elk and deer are. But the roads make moose far more vulnerable to poachers. Some hunters might think they're a cut above a poacher by putting out salt licks in Idaho to lure big game. While that's legal in some states, it's illegal in Idaho. “District Officers found several more salt licks this fall,” Hugo said. “Officers are gathering the locations of every salt lick that we find and we are saving the GPS coordinates. It is unlawful and unfair chase to hunt elk over any form of salt.“Idaho Geologists assure us that there are NO naturally occurring salt licks in north Idaho. We are currently devising ways to catch these poachers on site.”

For the first time in 75 years, an entire genus of mammal may go the way of the dodo—unless a new conservation effort shepherded by Somalian herders succeeds.The hirola, a large African antelope known for its striking, goggle-like eye markings, is the only remaining species in the genus Beatragus--and its numbers are dwindling fast, conservationists say.The last mammal genus to blink out was Thylacinus, in 1936, with the death of the last Tasmanian tiger. A genus is a taxonomic ranking between species and family.Considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the hirola has seen its numbers fall by as much as 90 percent since 1980. The latest survey, in February, found about 245 animals in fragmented pockets of northeastern Kenya and southwestern Somalia, according to the Nature Conservancy.In all, conservationists estimate there are fewer than 400 hirolas scattered throughout the species' historic range of East Africa.A range of factors, including climate change-related drought; unregulated hunting; habitat destruction; and more recently, predation have slashed populations.Now the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, a network of predominantly Somalian clans, is building a a new predator-free sanctuary for the species, according to Omar Tawane Dagane, the conservancy's Kenya-based manager. More....

Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials are seeking tips to help them nab poachers involved in killing two bull moose on or around Oct. 29. The bulls were killed within 25 yards of each other in French Gulch near Frost Peak in the Cataldo area.

The poacher or poachers took only the hind quarters of one moose. The remainder of the usable meat from this illegally taken moose was wasted. The entire second moose was left and wasted. Both were field dressed and the carcasses propped open as if the perpetrators were planning to return to retrieve more meat. Anyone with information should call:

Officer Mark Bowen, (208) 660-4655, or

Idaho Fish and Game office in Coeur d'Alene, (208)769-1414, or

Citizens Against Poaching hotline, (208) 632-5999.

Callers may remain anonymous and are eligible to receive a cash reward.

Project Predator, an initiative to protect and save the world’s last surviving wild tigers was unveiled today at the 80th INTERPOL General Assembly, a gathering of global law enforcement officials from the organization’s 190 member countries.Created by INTERPOL, Project Predator unites the efforts of police, customs and wildlife officials in the 13 countries in Asia where wild tigers can still be found. This new partnership under the Global Tiger Initiative brings together officials from the 13 tiger range countries, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institution and INTERPOL.“Unscrupulous poachers are threatening the few remaining wild tigers with extinction, and we must all work together to protect this iconic species. Through Project Predator, INTERPOL is again showing this commitment and determination to protect not only tigers, but the wider wildlife and ecosystems at risk from criminals,” said David Higgins, Manager of INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime Programme.The Project Predator initiative will provide capacity building to law enforcement agencies to combat tiger crimes, strengthening their ability to work with wildlife officials using advanced, intelligence-led methods of investigation. In addition, the initiative will encourage countries to establish and resource National Tiger Crime Task Forces.In a video address to the INTERPOL General Assembly in Hanoi, Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group and founder of the Global Tiger Initiative, said, “I’m particularly proud of the catalytic role being played by the Global Tiger Initiative, and the Bank Group’s early contribution toward Project Predator. This innovative effort among tiger range countries – including right here in Vietnam – will reduce trafficking in tiger parts, with the add-on effect of reducing other wildlife crime in Asia.” He further urged leaders “to give their criminal justice systems the power and resources to protect wildlife, forests, and fisheries from those who are plundering the planet’s natural capital and countries’ living heritage.”Due to poaching and habitat degradation and fragmentation, the estimated 100,000 tigers that roamed Asia in 1900 have now dwindled to fewer than 3,500 across the tiger range countries.“If poaching and trafficking continue at present rates, we may have a generation that will never know what a live, wild tiger is. Project Predator will enable police, customs and wildlife officials to share information they’ve gathered to keep tigers from disappearing forever,” said Frank Donovan, Mission Director for USAID/Vietnam. More....

Source: Insightcrime.orgBy Jeanna CullinanAuthorities in Mexico have rescued nearly 29,000 animals since 2000, many during operations against organized criminal groups.Mexico’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) was ordered to release data on animals it has seized after a request by a member of the public. It was forced to hand over information on the 28,767 animals confiscated over the last 11 years, including their current location and legal status. The release of this information, enforced by Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI), will help ensure that these animals are not being trafficked. The black market for wildlife and plants, known as "eco-trafficking," generates an estimated billion in profits each year. Among the animals confiscated in Mexico since 2000 are endangered species like Asian elephants and Bengal tigers, as well as falcons, wild boars and white-tailed bucks. Zoos throughout Mexico have provided shelter for hundreds of exotic animals, including the personal wildlife collections of criminals like Jesus Zambada, brother of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael Zamada. With space and resource limitations, however, Mexico’s zoos are unequipped to handle the nearly 29,000 animals confiscated over the past decade.

The effort to save wildlife from destruction worldwide has many heroes. Some receive accolades for their work, but others live in obscurity, doing good—sometimes even dangerous—work everyday with little recognition. These are not scientists or big-name conservationists, but wildlife rangers, NGO staff members, and low level officials. One of these conservation heroes is Bunda Bokitsi, chief guard of the Etate Patrol Post for Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a nation known for a prolonged civil war, desperate poverty, and corruption—as well as an astounding natural heritage—Bunda Bokitsi works everyday to secure Salonga National Park from poachers, bushmeat hunters, and trappers. In his years of service as a wildlife ranger, and now chief guard, Bokitsi has not only put his life on the line, but has also been falsely imprisoned and even tortured.

"If, for example, today I receive the instruction to follow poachers in the forest, I see such situations as if either the poacher or I will have to leave this world," Bokitsi told mongabay.com. "Poachers are destroying where we are living. In 2002, when I was the chief of the patrol post at Boangui, I found two poachers with guns and two big elephant tusks in the forest while I was on patrol [...\ One of the poachers ran away, the other started shooting at us. I returned fire and was finally able to capture him; his name was Batuka. [We\ recuperated the ivory. In situations like that, it becomes body to body. Anything can happen."

Bokitsi is one of the year's recipients of the Alexander Abraham award, established in part to give recognition to conservation heroes on the frontlines in Asia and Africa. Many of its awards are given posthumously to those who have lost lives in the battle to save the world's wild places. This year seven men were honored who had lost lives in duty; nine others, including Bokitsi, also received awards.

Having worked in Salonga National Park since 1990, and lived in the area all his life, Bokitsi has seen many changes. More....